BepiColombo Acoustic Test

Tom

8 months ago

Very pleased to see a BepiColombo online and at an acoustic test no less. I wondered how they tested for acoustics, was a shake-test enough? Apparently not.

ESA – The full BepiColombo stack seen in the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) at ESA’s test centre in June 2017. The walls of the chamber are fitted with powerful speakers that reproduce the noise expected during launch.

From bottom to top: the Mercury Transfer Module (sitting on top of a the cone-shaped adapter), the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (with an antenna facing towards the camera), and the sunshield (top), within which sits the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter.

The noise of a launch is incredible! The echo is so strong it could knock tiles off a Space Shuttle. The noise is mitigated so some degree with suppression systems, ever wonder what the water is for during launches, it is noise suppression.